Treasure the words in the Scriptures

Hello!

I love you guys to the moon and back and that is far. So feel loved! Much love!!

This week has been another week spending time in the house. This week I have been studying more in the Book of Mormon and preparing to leave the house and teach to people. I am reading the Book of Mormon at night each day mainly for the stories and then during my personal study each day I am studying the Book of Mormon more in depth. It is kind of crazy I know but I am learning a lot.

Today for example I read about when Jospeh in Egypt (who is the son of Jacob who was given the birthrite by his brother, who had the 12 sons, who turned into the 12 tribes of Isreal - Remember them Genesis) prophesised of Jospeh Smith. In 1 Nephi 21:3 it says, Änd said unto me: Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I am well glorifed. I wasn´t sure who was the servant in this context but I searched the scriptures and ended up in 2 Nephi 3, where Joseph prophesis of Jospeh Smith. In verse 7 it says the Lord will choose a choice seer, that he will raise up, and he will do this to bring forth the knowledge of his covenants to all. It also says in verse 15, that this choice seer will be called after Jospeh and shall be named after his father. It is such a great chapter about how the Lord always revels what will come. 

What is amazing, is that I read this chapter less than a month ago when I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission, and I read it today and found an all new meaning! The blessing in D&C to treasure up the words of the scriptures, is real. Believe me I see it every day in my personal study of the scriptures. 

I know that all of this studying will help me when we get to go out and teach today! We have 3 appointments with members who are less active and have doubts about the Book of Mormon and Jospeh Smith. So I am so excited to teach them. One invitation that is for everyone is in the Introduction of the Book of Mormon. It says, We invite all...yes all...to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in your heart the message it contains, and then to ask God, the enternal father, in the name of Christ if the book is true...

I have also been cooking a lot. Yes, that is right, the girl who hates to cook, actually cooks all the time. This week I made mexican tacos, without seasoning in a packet and the meat tasted amazing. I only used cominos, garlic, and lime juice. I also made migittas, little friends, and my companion loves them. I made myself an omlette today and we are eatting crepes for dinner. 

We also went to the market today and only spent $12 and got all of our fruit, veggies, and milk for the week. It is so cheap to shop there instead of the tienda. It is kind of like the Seattle market but way less people, and no flowers. lol. 

I hope you all have a great week and I can´t wait to share more with you next week.

Love, AnnaAlicia

Sharing the Gospel Naturally

I know that sharing the gospel can be really intimidating, but the more we share the gospel the easier it becomes. I wanted to share this amazing message with everyone.  I will post a few things here, but you can read the whole article on the LDS website here. 

This article is specifically geared toward the youth of the church, but I know we can all take a few pointers from it and be more missionary like.

"You can be a missionary in a small way each day...

In the October 2013 general conference, President Thomas S. Monson reminded us how important it is to help others come unto Christ.¹ For many of us, sharing the gospel can feel intimidating, though. After all, have you ever felt nervous about talking to others about the gospel or the Church?"

There are lists of things we can do to share the gospel naturally. Some of the lists include videos, scriptures to cheer others up, conversation starters, and most importantly a reminder that we should be praying for missionary opportunities.

"Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that there is a way to overcome that fear. He said, “'Fear will be replaced with faith and confidence when members and the full-time missionaries kneel in prayer and ask the Lord to bless them with missionary opportunities. Then, we must demonstrate our faith and watch for opportunities to introduce the gospel of Jesus Christ to our Heavenly Father’s children, and surely those opportunities will come. These opportunities will never require a forced or a contrived response. They will flow as a natural result of our love for our brothers and sisters. Just be positive, and those whom you speak with will feel your love.'”

-Love your missionary AnnaAlicia

Merry Christmas

Hola!

I wanted to send a short note and thank you so much for all of your love and all of your support. I couldn´t be out here so far from home unless I knew that you all supported me and my decision to serve the Lord. I miss you a ton and wish I was at home in the cold winter of Oregon but instead I am enjoying the even hotter days of Ecuador in my house. 

We have been house bound for the last and will be until next year lol. My companion had to have surgery and so we spend our days in the house and I study for hours upon hours. But itis a great opportunity to learn even more and focus on my spanish and the scriptures. 

I love you like crazy and cant wait to see you again in 15 months. The time is flying by literly. Don´t forget to eat pumpkin pie and cheese cake for me.

Love always, AnnaALicia

First Week of 2014

Hey!

I hear that you are not missing me as much. Sadness lol. It is okay, weird enough it is the same here. I do think about you every day but when we are working, it is hard not to think about anything but the work of the Lord.

We are still in the house and will be there until the 14th of January. Hermana Y is getting better but her doctor wants to see how her internal stiches are before he says she can work again. So we studying and practicing as much as we can. I can teach all of the lessons now in Spanish without help. Crazy since I still can´t understand everything people say but things are getting much better.

I am still reading the scriptures like crazy. I am in Alma now in the Book of Mormon! I started the Book of Mormon again about 3 weeks ago. I plan on finishing it this week. I am loving all of the gospel treasures I find in it. And  I am becoming more aquanited with it which helps me when I teach. I am also learning a lot in the Bible at the moment and reading about the adventures of Moses and him bringing the Isrealites out of bondage to the Eyptians. Right now they are in the wilderness eating manna and fish for 40 years. Could you even imagine that...I couldn´t.

I cant wait to get out and teach the people in my area. I am trying to take full advantage of the time I have to learn as much as I can and practice my spanish daily. SO I will be ready to teach everyone. 

Sorry not much new this week since we spend all our time in the house. 

I love you all so much and I know that you are doing great. Remember to show your love to one another and show your love to God by following the commandments. You will be greatly blessed for this.

Love always, your sister, daughter, and auntie in ECUADOR.

Week Before Christmas

Hola!

Another week has passed again. I can´t even believe it most of the time. It seems unreal most of the time. The days are super fast but the months are kind of slow. It is a really weird paradim I live in. But things are really different here in the middle of the earth at the equator. One thing that has not changed it that every day it gets hotter and hotter. At night it is now 85 degrees when I wake up and and when I go to sleep. It is miserable some nights but I am so glad that I am a sleeping bear and can sleep through anything because I litterly do.

This week I am still in 1st Nephi. But I am loving reading it again. I am spending more time with looking up who people are and using more of the cross references to the Bible. This week I learned more about Zedekiah and the destruction of Jersalem. I am also reading in the Old Testiment. Did you know that the story of Noah and the Arc is litterly only 2 chapters in the Old Testiment. And the reason that Noah built the ark is because there were so many wicked people on the earth that the Lord flooded the earth and only Noah and his family and 2 of every kind of animal was left. I love the Bible and am falling more in love with the Book of Mormon each time I read it.

I also found a new definition for Faith this week, COURAGE. We have to have courage to live not like the world but like Christ. We have to have courage to live the commandments of the Gospel. We have to have courage to avoid the temptations of the devil. Courage is what we need to be a person who wants to change and follow the Savior. Nephi needed courage to return to Jersalem and get the Brass plates which we now have in the Book of Mormon. Faith is courage. 

This week has been hard with finding people to teach but we try harder each and every day. We had a baptism scheduled for this weekend but they decided to not get baptized because they didn´t like waking up for church each weekend. It was sad and my heart wanted to brake but I know that we all have the gift of agency on this earth and they have the right to use it. 

I had a really spiritual experience this week when we were contacting. A few days ago we were walking down the street and this little girl (who was born on the same day as Luis) stuck out her hand and wanted to give me a piece of paper because she said I was her friend. Her name is Isabella and she just turned 6. A few days later we were contacting on the same street and she came to the window again and called us over. Her mother was in the living room and they were preparing for Isabella´s birthday party on Saturday. We asked if we could help, but the mother politely said no. So we talked to her for an hour through her window. She had a Book of Mormon already and had meet with the missionaries before. I could see it in her eyes that she was sad. 

We taught her about Eternal Families and a little about the restoration because she wanted to know more about Joseph Smith. I asked her to follow the example of Christ and be baptized and she said I can´t because I am not married to my husband. But I had such a strong impression that I needed to ask. We asked her to talk with her husband and make a goal to get married civially here in Guayaquil. She also accepted the phamplets we had and said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. She also asked during our conversation why prophets in the Bible never wrote about Joseph Smith. I got an impression to relate what happened to Jesus Christ to why prophets do not reveal who the next prophet will be. I told her of how when Jesus Christ was born, prophets had written abou the signs. That a bright star would shine and on that night Christ would be born. The good people looked for the star and waited, the bad people looked for the star and wanted to kill the baby Jesus because they knew of the good he would bring. I related this to the fact that prophets have never said the next prophet will be... in the Bible and this is because it is through God that the prophets recieve inspiration on who the next prophet will be. And God needs to protect his messangers. I talked to her about this for 5 minutes and it was nothing that I had practiced or even knew how to say before. It was such a great experience.

There is so much work to do here in Alegria. I am so grateful for this time in my life. The Lord blesses me daily with the ability to speak in Spanish and blesses me when I speak. 

Love, AnnaAlicia